Reduced fat chocolate

ABSTRACT

A processs for the preparation of a reduced fat milk chocolate which comprises preparing a powdered premix of substantially all the non-fat ingredients, adding up to 96% of the fat containing ingredients to the powdered premix and mixing to give a mass containing from 18 to 24% by weight fat based on the total weight of the mass, refining the mass on refining rollers to give a particle size of from 25 to 35 microns, adding the remainder of the fat containing ingredients and lecithin, conching, tempering to give a reduced fat milk chocolate containing less than 27% by weight of fat.

This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 09/038,937, filed Mar.12, 1998 now U.S. Pat. No. 5,932,277.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a processs for the preparation of areduced fat milk chocolate.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A traditional method of producing milk chocolate is by mixing milkpowder together with cocoa liquor or cocoa nibs, sugar, and cocoabutter, followed by refining, pasting, conching and tempering.

Another traditional method of producing milk chocolate is by condensingand drying either liquid milk or milk concentrate together with sugarand cocoa liquor under vacuum and at elevated temperatures to produce achocolate crumb powder and then mixing the chocolate crumb powder withcocoa butter, followed by refining, pasting, conching and tempering.

Conventional milk chocolate contains about 30-31% fat. It may containmore or less but rarely less than 27% fat. Calorie-conscious consumersdemand a chocolate with lower calories and one way of reducing thecalories in chocolate is by reducing the fat content. However, there aretechnical difficulties in reducing the fat content of milk chocolatewithout causing the quality, taste and texture to be inferior to that ofconventional milk chocolate. For example, reduced fat milk chocolatesusually give a dry and coarse mouthfeel and the viscosity is too highfor normal handling during preparation.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

We have devised a process for the preparation of a reduced fat milkchocolate which has similar or even better physical characteristics thanconventional milk chocolate.

Accordingly, the present invention provides a processs for thepreparation of a reduced fat milk chocolate which comprises preparing apowdered premix of substantially all the non-fat ingredients, adding upto 96% of the fat containing ingredients to the powdered premix andmixing to give a mass containing from 18 to 24% by weight fat based onthe total weight of the mass, refining the mass on refining rollers togive a particle size of from 25 to 35 microns, adding the remainder ofthe fat containing ingredients and lecithin, conching and tempering togive a reduced fat milk chocolate containing less than 27% by weight offat.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The non-fat ingredients are conveniently non-fat dry milk, non-fat cocoapowder and sucrose, preferably used in conventional proportions, e.g.from about 7.5 to 22.5% by weight of non-fat dry milk, from about 1 to5% by weight of non-fat cocoa powder and from about 40-55% by weight ofsucrose.

If desired, up to 10% by weight of cocoa liquor may be added to thepremix together with additional non-fat cocoa powder, e.g. up to 4% byweight.

Conveniently, lecithin is added to the powdered premix with the fatcontaining ingredients, preferably in an amount of up to 60% and morepreferably from 20 to 40% by weight of the total lecithin in the finalreduced fat chocolate.

The fat containing ingredients are conveniently cocoa butter, milk fat,cocoa liquor preferably added in amounts to give a mass containing from60 to 85% and more preferably from 75-80% by weight of the total fat inthe final reduced fat chocolate.

The fat containing ingredients may be added in conventional proportions,e.g. from about 10 to 25% by weight of cocoa butter, 3 to 7% by weightof milk fat and from 5 to 15% by weight of cocoa liquor. Preferably, thefat containing ingredients are blended before adding to the premix.

Surprisingly, the mass containing from only 18% to 24% by weight fat(compared with between 24 and 28% used conventionally) is relatively wetand can be refined without technical problems conventionally, e.g. on 2,3 or 5-roll refiners. Preferably, the mass contains from 18.75 to 21% byweight fat based on the total weight of the mass.

Although not wishing to be bound by theory, the fats in conventionalmilk chocolate ingredients are mostly bound (immobile) in either thecrumb or in the whole milk powder and cocoa liquor. Therefore, onlyabout 40% of the total fat can be added as free mobile fat. By usingnon-fat powders (instead of crumb, whole milk powder or cocoa liquor),the remaining fat (from 90% to almost 100% of the total) can be added inits free mobile form to lubricate the dry material and this has asignificant positive impact on the viscosity and texture (mouthfeel) ofthe product. Since the fat is available free (mobile) fat, the refinermass is relatively wet at low fat contents.

The remainder of the fat containing ingredients together with thelecithin or the remainder of the lecithin is conveniently added duringthe conching stage, preferably towards the end of the conching stage.The conching may be carried out conventionally, e.g. from 60° to 80° C.for 4 to 8 hours in a B-Conche.

The reduced fat milk chocolate of the present invention has the same orbetter physical characteristics such as texture, mouthfeel(lubrication), snap, viscosity, handling (tempering, mould, enrobing),and gloss than a conventional milk chocolate, e.g. containing 30-31% byweight fat.

The reduced fat milk chocolate can be processed and made into finalproducts using conventional equipment.

The present invention also provides a reduced fat milk chocolatecontaining at least 90% by weight of fat in its free mobile formobtainable by the process of the present invention.

EXAMPLE

The following Example further illustrates the present invention. partsand percentages are given by weight.

Example 1

50.16 parts of sucrose, 17.21 parts of skimmed milk powder and 3.02parts of non-fat cocoa powder are blended in a Hobart mixer to form apremix. 10.01 parts of cocoa liquor, 15.17 parts of deodorized cocoabutter and 4.11 parts of anhydrous milk fat are mixed in a Hobart mixerto give a fat blend. 69% of the fat blend together with 0.09 parts oflecithin are added to the premix and the whole blended in a Hobart mixerto give a mass containing 20.8% fat.

The mass is refined on a 3-roll refiner to give a refined low-fatmaterial having a particle size of 27 microns. The refined low-fatmaterial is loaded into the conche, together with the remaining fat and0.055 parts of lecithin. The material is conched at 158° F. (70° C.) for5.5 hours and then 0.155 parts of lecithin and 0.02 parts of vanillin isadded and the whole material conched for a further 0.5 hours.

The milk chocolate produced is easy to remove from the conche and has aplastic viscosity of 45.45 dynes×sec./cm2, a yield value of 97.3dynes/cm2 and MCM of 40.33 degrees MacMichael. The chocolate has a totalfat content of 25.2% by weight.

What is claimed is:
 1. A process for the preparation of a reduced fatmilk chocolate which comprises preparing a powdered premix ofsubstantially all non-fat ingredients which at least include dry milkand cocoa, adding up to 96% of at least one fat containing ingredient tothe powdered premix and mixing to give a mass containing from 18 to 24%by weight fat based on the total weight of the mass, refining the masson refining rollers to a particle size of from 25 to 35 microns, addingadditional fat containing ingredients and lecithin to the refined mass,and conching and tempering the resulting mixture to obtain a reduced fatmilk chocolate containing less than 27% by weight of fat.
 2. A processaccording to claim 1 wherein the non-fat ingredients are non-fat drymilk, non-fat cocoa powder and sucrose.
 3. A process according to claim1 wherein up to 10% of cocoa liquor is added to the premix together withadditional non-fat cocoa powder.
 4. A process according to claim 1wherein lecithin is added to the powdered premix with the fat containingingredients in an amount of up to 60% by weight of the total lecithin inthe final reduced fat chocolate.
 5. A process according to claim 1wherein the fat-containing ingredients are cocoa butter, milk fat, cocoaliquor.
 6. A process according to claim 1 wherein the fat containingingredients are added in amounts to give a mass containing from 60 to85% by weight of the total fat in the final reduced fat chocolate.
 7. Aprocess according to claim 1 wherein the remainder of the fat containingingredients together with the lecithin or the remainder of the lecithinis added during the conching stage.
 8. A process according to claim 1wherein the remainder of the fat containing ingredients together withthe lecithin or the remainder of the lecithin is added towards the endof the conching stage.
 9. A reduced fat milk chocolate containing atleast 90% by weight of fat in its free mobile form obtainable by theprocess of claim 1.